Caroline Jo McIlmoil

“I hope I can be the autumn leaf, who looked at the sky and lived. And when it was time to leave, gracefully it knew life was a gift.” - Dodinsky

Fall is a season of change. A season of withering and dying to make way for new life. The leaves change to beautiful shades of reds, orange, and even purple - our mom’s favorite colors.

In the fall, we reflect on everything we are thankful for. Thanksgiving was our mom’s favorite holiday because she loved to cook the meal and sit down with her family. It was one of the only times mom allowed herself to slow down.

On November 16, 2025, our autumn leaf took her final breath and floated to the ground. After five years battling metastatic breast cancer and three years battling small cell lung cancer, Caroline Jo McIlmoil, known to most as Kay, joined her parents Lois Marie Chambers and William Robers Chambers, and her siblings Bruce Chambers and Lois Ann Chambers in the afterlife.

Born a preemie on February 4, 1944, the youngest of three children, Kay sought to prove that she was small but mighty. Kay graduated from Finneytown High School in 1962. She had immense school spirit and retained leadership positions organizing reunions until she passed. She loved her Finneytown classmates and kept in close contact with them.

In her late 20s, Kay put herself through college and graduated from the University of Cincinnati with a bachelors in business. She then used her love of business and her desire to help people to build a lifetime career managing and inspecting government funded properties for low-income, disabled, and elderly people. She inspected properties well into her 70s and then transitioned into delivering packages for the USPS and substitute teaching for Duval County Schools. She continued to substitute teach throughout her first year of treatment for small cell lung cancer.

Kay was a loving mother, an explorer, a lover of birds and nature, a fierce advocate for the needy, and a motivated and strong woman. She was resilient, independent and determined throughout her life, never wavering from her responsibilities as a single mother to her children, or from her desire to achieve her goals. It was her strength and motivation that allowed her to fight off cancer for so long, and she surpassed all predictions for life expectancy and held on to life until the very end.

She is survived by her children, Tara Alana Sanders, Rory Devin McIlmoil, and Colin Shea Adair McIlmoil; children-in-law, Jonathan Sanders and Stephanie Langston; her grandchildren, Maxine Rae Kelley, Francis Neil Kelley, Harper Jo McIlmoil, and Linden Jane McIlmoil; and her stepson, Neil McIlmoil.

Her remains have been cremated and will be buried next to her parents at the Arlington Cemetery in Atlanta, Georgia in the spring with a small service with immediate family members.

In lieu of flowers, we request that donations be made to the MD Anderson Cancer Foundation to support cancer research. In memory of Caroline Jo McIlmoil, contributions may be made to MD Anderson Cancer Center, P.O. Box 4486, Houston, TX 77210-4486 or MDAnderson.org/Gifts

In the spring we will take walks through forests and gardens and remember our sweet mother.

“Where flowers bloom, so does hope.” – Lady Bird Johnson